With less than a month to go before Election Day, one critical pocketbook issue that could put Sen. Barack Obama into the White House is Sen. John McCains reckless health insurance reform proposal.

At a time when people are terrified about their financial well-being–with stocks tanking on Wall Street, and banks and businesses failing on Main Street–the last thing anyone with a job wants to worry about is losing their health coverage.

Yet that is exactly the fear Sen. McCain is injecting into this campaign with his call to tax employer-paid health insurance premiums, while sending folks off with a totally inadequate tax credit to shop for individual coverage on their own.

Under current law, group health insurance premiums are not counted as taxable income for employees, but it would be under the McCain plan–a key point not mentioned anywhere in the healthcare section of the candidate's Web page, but sure to be harped on by Obama over the next four weeks.

The Republican candidate says he would offset that loss by offering a 2,500 tax credit for individuals and $5,000 for families buying insurance on their own. But as too few are aware, decent health insurance costs at least twice, even three times as much as that credit–and thats just for the premium. Deductibles and co-payments are also likely to be far higher once you step outside the group umbrella.

And if you have a pre-existing condition, good luck finding coverage at any price. Indeed, Sen. McCains history of melanomas makes him virtually uninsurable in the individual market, unless any recurrence of his prior illness is excluded.

Sen. McCains Web page says his plan would compensate for such gaps in part by encouraging formation of public high-risk pools and Health Savings Accounts. Yet I question the commitment of Republicans to government coverage, given their hostility toward Medicare and Medicaid, and wonder how many middle-class families have any disposable income to squirrel away in their own rainy day funds.

Sen. Obamas plan is not nearly as ambitious as were those of his rivals for the Democratic nomination–Sen. Hillary Clinton and John Edwards. He provides no guarantee of universal coveragejust a promise of universal access.

He would set up a National Health Insurance Exchange offering a range of private insurance options, as well as a new public plan based on benefits available to members of Congress, the Obama campaign Web site notes.

His plan would also prohibit rejection over preexisting conditions, offer premium subsidies to those below a certain income level, and provide a tax credit to help small businesses afford coverage.

A high-level catastrophic illness fund would also be created to cap the limits private plans would have to offer for the relative few with such health claims, which should lower premiums for standard plans.

These steps would in part be financed by a health insurance surcharge against large firms that do not offer coverage to employees. The playing field would be leveled further by providing a tax credit for individuals forced to buy coverage on their own, although the size of the credit isnt specified on the Obama campaign Web page.

Fervent free-marketers are sure to object to any government intervention, and any plan to tax firms not providing health insurance will spark knee-jerk opposition as well. But the fact that 47 million lack health insurance, while even those with coverage are hard put to afford health care, makes the status quo unacceptable.

Yet the changes pushed by Sen. McCain will not only fail to solve the problem, it will make matters worse. Good luck trying to sell that to middle-class voters.

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